Investigation continues after Tucson couple's bodies found in Rio Grande

An investigation is continuing into the deaths of a well-known Tucson couple, a linguist and an artists’ community leader, after their bodies were found in the Rio Grande in Sierra County, New Mexico.

Muriel Macaskill Fisher, 73, was found by jet ski-riders on June 18 in the Rio Grande near Williamsburg, N.M. Her husband Paul Fisher, 70, was found the same day near Truth or Consequences, N.M.

No cause of death has been established as the investigation continues, the Sierra County Medical Examiner’s Office and the University of New Mexico Office of the Custodian of Public Records told the Star on Thursday.

Sierra County sheriff’s officials haven’t returned multiple emails and phone calls from the Star seeking information about the case.

Sierra County Sheriff Joshua Baker told the Sierra County Sentinel that no suspects were being sought and there was not believed to be any danger to the public, according to a June 29 article by reporter Frances Luna.

Authorities found the couple’s rental car on Riverside Drive in Truth or Consequences, the article said.

“I don’t know what happened, but I’m glad they had each other,” said Adrienne Halpert, owner of Global Arts Gallery in Patagonia and a long-time friend of both Paul and Muriel. “The ripples of their essence go deep and wide. … I’ve never known people like them. They magnified each other’s creativity.”

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The Fishers were Tucson residents for more than 40 years. Muriel, a Gaelic linguist and retired senior research scientist at the University of Arizona’s Department of Linguistics and Gaelic language, won the Excellence in Community Linguistics award from the National Science Foundation in 2014.

She taught her native Gaelic for many years, privately in her Tucson Gaelic Institute, at Pima Community College and at the UA.

Paul was a longtime leader in Tucson’s arts community, having been director of arts education for the Tucson Pima Arts Council from 1990-1996. He did a stint as Tucson Water’s conservation mascot “Pete the Beak” in the late 1970s.

“(Paul) and I were both a part of the Arizona Commission on the Arts artisan resident program,” said Thom Lewis, who knew the Fishers for decades. “Later he was involved as the executive director of Arts Integrative Solutions, an offshoot of a program I worked for.”

“Paul and Muriel always had that great charm that people from the British Isles always have,” Lewis said. Muriel was a native of the Isle of Skye in Scotland, and Paul was from Britain.

“They were always a very enduring, funny people,” Lewis said.